


A Shoulder to Cry on

by Little_Wintry



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, Original Character(s), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, The Dreaming City, ahhhhhhhhh, and i needed to post some shit, its been a long fucking day, just please read the notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 16:55:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24490183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Wintry/pseuds/Little_Wintry
Summary: After a long, sleepless night, Zelun goes to see Petra.
Relationships: Petra Venj/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	A Shoulder to Cry on

**Author's Note:**

> oh my fucking god, life has been a bit of a shitshow recently. Between the riots and the virus and a bunch of other bullshit, my anxiety's been getting the best of me and I've barely been able to write. But I figured, hell, since it's Pride Month, I'm gonna treat myself and write some stuff between my Guardian and Petra. See the endnotes for more updates and stuff.
> 
> As a side note, this piece takes place after Forsaken.

The sky was dusky and gray, the stars barely visible. From Zelun’s bedroll, perched atop one of the tall, abandoned spires, it all seemed endless, quiet. 

Something terrified her.

It was one of those unshakeable feelings that made her want to sob and run away from it all. From everything, from the Vanguard and the City and even Petra and her own Ghost. Her eyes burned. Why? They were always burning now, like she was always on the verge of tears. 

She turned to the other side. Pirul was powered off, and Zelun didn’t want to wake him. Didn’t want to bother him with more of her drama.

Standing shakily, Zelun rubbed her eyes. Her head was throbbing, and the ground seemed to sway below her. She took a deep breath - the air was toxic.

She climbed down the tower with careful, practiced precision, before making it back to solid ground. It seemed like even the Taken were on a break. Everything was still, nearly deafening in it’s silence. 

Eventually, the landscape looked more familiar. The faint outlines of the Strand. Zelun took the long way around, before making it up to Petra’s camp.

Petra was, for once, asleep. Her head was leaning up against one of the pillars of the gazebo. The way she was tilted, her hair fell away from her patch, and the faint light illuminated the golden pattern.

Zelun sat down next to her. For a moment, she tried to calm herself down, before gently shaking Petra awake.

“Hey,” She muttered, still groggy. “Did something happen?”

Almost instantly, the tears started to flow to reasons Zelun didn’t quite understand. Something was too overwhelming - but Zelun couldn’t place what it was. Her shoulders tensed up, and Petra tilted towards her.

“Hey, shh,” She said, pulling Zelun in tightly. Pressing her head against Petra’s chest, Zelun choked back a sob, before breathing in a shallow breath. She wrapped her arms tightly around Petra’s torso and tried to steady her breathing.

“It’s okay, I’m right here,” Petra said. “What happened? Was it a nightmare?”

“N-No,” Zelun said. “I just… couldn’t sleep.”

“Where’s Pirul?” 

“Back at the camp. I-I didn’t want to wake him up,” Zelun wiped one of her cheeks, smearing her tears across her face. She almost laughed in spite of herself. “God, what’s wrong with me?”

“Nothing’s wrong with you,” Petra said, with such conviction that Zelun almost believed it. “As painful as this is, it’s normal.” She lowered her voice. “You don’t remember it, but we’d both have nights like this too. After Amethyst,” Petra ran her fingers through Zelun’s hair. “We didn’t know of a better way to express our pain than to cry into one another’s shoulder.”

They sat in silence for some time. Zelun’s breathing evened out.

“Petra,” She said softly. “I don’t want to go back to my camp, I don’t wanna leave.”

“You don’t have too,” Petra said. “I don’t mind.”

“Good,” Zelun buried herself deeper into Petra’s embrace. “It’s… it’s better to have someone here.”

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said, life has been fucking stressful. I deleted my TTK work, mostly because I couldn't find a good way to write Chapter 2 and I was already unhappy with Chapter 1. While TTK is a big turning point (Zelun loses what she had found of her past, and is left with a serious savior complex and a dash of survivor's guilt) but it's also... really hard to write. It's strange, I write a lot, a LOT of PTSD, both in fanfic and original works, but it's something really hard to articulate to me. I can write the symptoms, and write them gradually healing, but it starts getting hard when I get into the meat of it. 
> 
> Either way, I'm probably gonna start posting more misc. stuff from post-Forsaken and Shadowkeep. I have some of my favorite works in there, and frankly, I got on AO3 so I could get to just put them out there. And I'm the kind of person who gets a whole shot of adrenaline when I see kudos left on my works, so please please please, leave kudos and comments. It makes my day. And I would love some feedback if you have it. Hell, if you've even gotten this far, thank you a million.
> 
> Anyway, that's all for my ranting. I hope everyone in the US stays safe with all of this going on. Hopefully, I'll dig up some more stuff to post soon. Be prepared for a lot of PTSD trauma and angst, since that's apparently all I know how to write.
> 
> -Wintry


End file.
